Dream It Loud! Build an Inclusive Society for Urban and Rural Youth ______
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Dream it loud! Build an inclusive society for urban and rural youth ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Report of the study session held by Youth Express Network and Rural Youth Europe in co‐operation with the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe European Youth Centre Strasbourg 22‐29 May 2016 This report gives an account of various aspects of the study session. It has been produced by and is the responsibility of the educational team of the study session. It does not represent the official point of view of the Council of Europe. DDCP‐YD (2016) 197 Strasbourg, November 2016 1 Dream it loud! Build an inclusive society for urban and rural youth ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Report of the study session held by Youth Express Network and Rural Youth Europe in co‐operation with the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe European Youth Centre Strasbourg 22‐29 May 2016 Team: Mirela Lupu, Simone Lucchi, Kätlin Merisalu, Nemanja Tenjovic, Jenni Heinonen, Karina Chupina Reporter: Jenni Heinonen Participants’ report committee: Jonathan De Lijster, Emmeline Kuhn, Siobhan Gallagher and Monika Holzl Youth Express Network +33 3 88 35 3745 y‐e‐[email protected] www.youthexpressnetwork.org Rural Youth Europe +358 4523 45629 [email protected] www.ruralyoutheurope.com 2 Table of Contents Executive summary ............................................................................................. 4 1. Background of the session ............................................................................... 7 2. Aim and objectives .......................................................................................... 9 3. Preparation team ............................................................................................ 9 4. Participant profiles ........................................................................................ 10 5. Programme flow ........................................................................................... 10 6. Working methods .......................................................................................... 11 7. Lecturers and experts .................................................................................... 12 8. Main results .................................................................................................. 13 9. Main learning points ..................................................................................... 16 10. Evaluation ................................................................................................... 16 11. Expected impact and follow‐up ................................................................... 17 12. Contribution to the organisations’ development ......................................... 18 Appendices ‐ I. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS .............................................................. 20 II. Programme of the study session "Dream It Loud"…………………………………......18 3 Executive summary This report is based on the information shared and discussed during the “Dream it Loud! – Build an inclusive society for urban and rural youth” study session in Strasbourg in May 2016. This was a joint study session between Youth Express Network (Y‐E‐N) and Rural Youth Europe, organised in co‐operation with the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe. The aim of this study session was to promote an inclusive society by facilitating access to social rights of young people coming from urban and rural areas. The study session had 38 participants from 21 countries. The participants learned about what social rights are, how to advocate for social rights, what kind of tools and mechanisms are available for this. The group reflected on the connections between social inclusion and access to social rights. The study session was based on the human rights‐based approach and informed by such European practices and policies in the field of access to social rights, as the Enter! project, the European Social Charter, the Enter! Recommendation, and others. The Enter! project, presented at the study session, promotes young people's access to social rights as a means for their inclusion and participation in society; and the Enter! Recommendation, a policy recommendation adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for its member states, was used as a platform to discuss access to social rights and to connect the concrete measures outlined in the Recommendation, to the participants’ local realities. The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty that guarantees a broad range of everyday human rights related to employment, housing, health, education, social protection and welfare. Discussion on the Charter and which rights are denied to young people in our countries initiated good discussions, sharing of the local realities and comparing situations between countries as well as between rural and urban perspectives. The participants found out that there are big differences within Europe regarding social rights and opened their eyes to the fact that even the countries that seem to be doing relatively well regarding social rights have a lot to improve. The participants’ attitudes changed so that they are now equipped with a better ability to see and recognise different forms of social exclusion and point out when the social rights of young people are being violated in their own local realities. Various non‐formal educational methods were applied over the week and the preparatory team found out that sometimes the simplest method of discussion in 4 small groups worked the best. The participants learned a lot when sharing and comparing realities. One of the main learning points for the team and participants was that we need to be more concrete when we want to improve access to social rights and social inclusion: not only to learn about what we can use when we want to claim our rights, but also to find practical and concrete solutions that will work in our communities. The participants learnt to recognise social rights as human rights and to recognise social rights through the needs of young people. Competence building workshops were held in human rights education, advocacy, leadership and teamwork skills. The aim was to support the participants to have the skills to promote social inclusion and to take the knowledge gained into practice at the local level. In general, as a result of the learning process we can identify several learning outcomes that have been developed at different levels, both individually and as a group. As mentioned above, the participants got to know what social rights actually are and what it means to acknowledge them as part of the human rights system. They also gained knowledge about European tools and strategies (such as the Enter! Recommendation and the European Social Charter) and became familiar with examples and good practices in the implementation of such tools (through panels of experiences, visits, etc.). Moreover ‐ in terms of awareness raising ‐ not only did the participants become more aware of the existence of the socio‐political framework of social rights, but they also understood better the direct and indirect implications of having such rights respected and fulfilled. In this sense, presenting the rights‐based approach as a frame of reference helped the group understand the different dimensions involved (rights‐holders, duty‐bearers, the role of the civil society, etc.) and better define their own action plans. In terms of awareness, it’s also worth mentioning the attention and the appreciation with which the participants explored the differences (and the similarities) between the rural and the urban contexts, as well as the way they were able to recognise and express discrimination that young people face on daily basis in either area. At an attitudinal level, it is fair to mention the personal commitment towards social change and the motivation showed to have a say in and offer practical solutions to the situation of social exclusion of young people. 5 From a practical point of view, apart from the theoretical background about human rights education and European recommendations, the participants gained practical skills in advocacy, team‐work, leadership and facilitation through a learning‐by‐doing approach. Likewise, they learnt how to organise and devise their actions by shaping a first draft of their personal action plan. Finally, when talking about the results of this study session, it’s also important to mention the personal and professional network created among participants coming from very different areas and social contexts. Although it is difficult to foresee the impact that such relationships might have in the long run, we highly value the potential and the relevance of this networking. Furthermore, some of the concrete outputs of this study session were four videos addressing the recognition of non‐formal education to promote young people’s employability, the value of sport and leisure‐time activities as an opportunity to foster social cohesion and well‐being, the commitment of young people to improve the conditions of their neighbourhoods and, finally, the vision of the world where social rights and social inclusion are a reality. A forum theatre session methodology on counteracting bullying at schools and the draft of a questionnaire on the access to social rights for HIV‐positive persons were also designed and created by the participants.